Fuel Starvation problem solved..TomCat Honda 150

[squidslayer]

With the boat out of the water till Salmon season..I was able to solve the fuel problem that drove me crazy last spring. My Starboard Honda 150 would lose power intermittently when running..but was ok at idle or low speed .After numerous and frustrating attempts and trial and error to find the problem I ended up Jerry Rigging a fix by running another fuel line straight from the fuel tank to the fuel separator inside the engine cover to temporally bypass the problem so I could fish the season but never really found the problem.
My boat is at Eagle Marine in Martinez were I met a Coastsider that had his Cat there for service. The "NightHawk" He has Honda 225's on his boat. After mentioning my troubles with the fuel he told me he had the SAME exact frustrating problem in one of his motors last year. He said that salt had formed inside the cable, fuel and controls grommet right where it meets and goes thru the engine housing of the outboard. The salt had built up so bad that it pinched the fuel line..starving the engine. So today I took the housing and grommet apart on my Honda 150..pulled the fuel line out. Pinched fuel line! Also the salt was so thick I had to chisel it out. Bear in mind I do wash my boat with fresh water ever time as I am in the salt water all the time. Got the fuel line on order...and am going to check the other engine too.

DickE
255 TomCat
"ShirleyMae"

[journey on]

Thank you for the post, it'll be on my check list.

The C-25 motor is up on the transome directly, that may help, but the fuel tube can get pinched anyway.

Boris

[Casey]

Interesting....

Last year I had a somewhat similar problem but it was not with restricted fuel - it was a rusted through shift cable (but caused by the same grommet).

The similarity seems to be that the rubber grommet (where the fuel line, shift/throttle cables, etc) pass into the cowling appears tight and virtually waterproof, but isn't. It evidently permits a small amount of water to pass through during certain conditions.

Like most of us, I clean the boat after each saltwater cruise, but frankly I hadn't done anything in the vicinity of that rubber grommet. My mistake.

I think that washing/rinsing each time will suffice, but now I intend to do a more thorough inspection with each oil change.

Good info.

Best,
Casey

[billtwymank]

Thanks for taking time to provide very good input.

We are sitting on Lady KC at the moment and just checked both of our Honda's.
Ours looks good at the moment but will always be on our future check....wash down list.

[What Shore]

Glad you got it fixed . I know how frustrating it can be because I had the same problem on my last boat. It was an Albemarle with twin 225 yamies mounted on an Armstrong bracket just as with the Tomcat. After several hundred $$ of fuel filters & pumps found out I just needed a $3 piece of fuel line. I didn't realize that this was a common problem until I read your post . I will definately keep a better check from now on.

[squidslayer]

I'll take a few photos with my iphone when I get back to my boat Monday.
The symptoms of my very frustrating problem with one of my Honda BF150s last year was........ loss of power at cruising speed or higher in my starboard Bf 150...rpms would slowly and intermittently start dropping. During the problem if I went back to the primer bulb and pumped it up.... The power would be restored but only for 30 seconds or so. The motor always started and idled well but if the rpms went over 2000 it would start to starve for fuel.
A list of things I did to no avail in order of

Checked all accessible fuel lines

Changed all the fuel filters high/low...

Changed water/fuel separator filter

Changed primer bulb

Changed fuel tank check valve

Changed fuel Pump

In the end ..I found out by hooking an external fuel tank directly to the motor...which I should have done sooner..... It ran fine!... But if I ran the external tank by hooking it on the last line before it led out thru the "Remote Control Cable Grommet" to the engine ....it still lost power. So I suspected the problem had to be between those points .
Since my boat was in the water..moored at Spud Point Marina at Bodega Bay... access to check was very limited. Sooooo
A HOT Salmon bite was starting to happen at Bodega were my boat was moored so my main goal was to just get the boat F%&#@$* working!
So I Jerry Rigged a new fuel line so it ran directly from the main fuel tank to the engine thru the motor housing....thus bypassing the "Remote Control Cable Grommet"..until I had time to fix it Kosher.
Well, that was in June....And the Salmon bite was GOOD in Bodega and was starting to go off the hook so from then on... that I decided "it's working now don't touch the damm thing till the end of the season!" Then the Rock-fishing was in order...then I went on several Tuna trips out of Bodega of 100miles each....then Crab for two months...
Like I said I will post a photo of the RCC Grommet and the pre formed fuel line that was pinched when I get back to the boat Monday

Even thought I washed my boat down every time...over the years a little saltwater seeps thought the Remote Control Cable Grommet ..The salt starts to crystallize and expand with time and start to crowd out the fuel line and corrosion happened too. You have to disassemble the Remote Control Cable Grommet and pull out the pre formed fuel line from inside the engine because you cannot inspect it where it goes thru the grommet. Also I had to dig out all the salt buildup with a screwdriver and clean it before installing the new pre formed fuel line that I had to order from Honda.

Cheers
DickE

[tsturm]

[Larry H]

It sounds like this problem is because there is corrosion between the grommet and the housing. This corrosion is caused by the salt water getting between the rubber and the aluminium housing.

Setting the grommet into the housing using a 'gasket sealing compound' can keep the salt water out of the area between the grommet and the housing. The compound I used in my O/B shop was called just that and was sold by OMC (now BRP). This compound was a brown runny liquid that only semi dried. Probably any sealer would be better than none, even waterproof grease might work.

[squidslayer]

Good idea...any idea where you could buy a 4 inch pice of SS fuel line that has barbs on both ends so you can clamp it to the rubber fuel lines?

DickE